Ford wins Illinois House election for retiring Danny Davis’s seat

Democrat La Shawn Ford is set to succeed longtime Rep. Danny Davis (D) in representing Illinois’s 7th Congressional District, Decision Desk HQ has projected, beating out Republican opponent Chad Koppie, a retired Delta Air Lines jumbo jet captain.

Ford has served as a member of the Illinois state House, representing the 8th District, since January 2007. He went to Loyola University Chicago, where he played for the school’s basketball team before later becoming a teacher in the Chicago Public Schools system and then starting his own real estate business.

In the Democratic primary for Illinois’s 7th Congressional District this year, Ford battled it out against the cryptocurrency’s leading super PAC, Fairshake. He won his race despite the $2.5 million the PAC spent against him.

In July 2025, Davis announced that he would retire from Congress when his term is up. He has served in Congress for three decades, representing parts of Chicago during that time.

Davis was first elected in 1996 and has been a senior member of the House Ways and Means Committee in addition to playing a leadership role in the Congressional Black Caucus. He backed Ford in the bid for his seat.

Ford lives in the Chicago neighborhood of Austin and has a daughter named Tia.